If you're employer was a private entity, I think they could basically do whatever they wanted, as long as they did not discrimnate (the Fourth amendment doesn't apply to private entities)
On the other hand, it sounds like you work for the government, so the Fourth amendment might apply. However, I know that defense contractor employees (Lockheed Martin, etc) are subject to searches by the DOD when they enter or leave the site, and those searches are legal.
I'd say your best bet might be to talk to an attorney, or pay your legal dept. a visit and ask them about it. If the searching is legal, there is almost surely a federal or DOD statute that makes them legit - ask for a copy.
The article is not particularly informative, but the humorous reference to HAL at the end makes it worth the read.
I have to agree with some of the contest detractors though - I don't see this as a great way to concentrate on AI. I think that computers that anticipate human actions and make their own well informed decisions, and so on, will be much mroe useful and more important than a computer that can interact well in a natural language.
Check out the hardware that they apparently used for this. I assume its what they used to control the device.
I guess its just a reminder that sometimes slow and simple out weighs fast and new. It'd be interesting to know just what sort of hardware and software they used to create this. The article on the Colorado page give some details, saying that diode lasers were used and that the apparatus was simple and inexpensive. It's neat to think not all cutting edge physics needs super expensive and complicated devices like cyclotrons.
The sort of Indiana Jones/John Wayne/Han Solo attitude in the crew was refreshing - that's something that had been lost (and something that was fitting for the "maturity" of the human race at that point)
As far as the soft core porn, I had no problem with seeing that side of a Vulcan, and my non-geek g/f had no problem seeing a starship captain in his briefs.
I didn't like the science all that much. I got the sense that they had lost some of the knack for reality that we had gained during TNG, etc. For instance, the light of the phaser beam moved *much* slower in that communications room than the people in it. I didn't understand the whole shielding scheme either. It is very unlcear to me exactly what technologies they have and do not have. For instance, they have deflectors, transporters, anti-grav, and beam weapons - but don't yet have a tractor beam. I don't know if the physics of these are consistent or not. (What I mean is this: are any of these like having incadescent lights and not having figured out that you can use electricity for heaters)
I did like some of the "primative" touches. I liked the human linguist. I liked the "sweet-spot" in the ships anti grav unit.
once thing I'd like to know - do they have subspace communications? I assume that they do, but it was never mentioned, and on TNG they through around "subspace" the way people throw around "Action Item" in a corporation.
Athiests do, however, engage in Philosophical wars, which are just as dangerous. Case in point: any Communist revolution. Religion is only bad when it clouds the judgement of an entire group of people, but it is not the only thing that can cause this.
Aamazon.com tops $1G for Red Cross
on
More On Tragedy
·
· Score: 0, Informative
Over 36,000 people have contributed over $1,000,000 today. Wow - amazing. Get there and give money if you haven't!
If I recall correctly, this story is very similar to (but albeit perhaps more detailed than) other stories that disected other IPOs and Internet Startups back when everything started crashing. I can see how it would be interesting, but nothing seems like particularly big news or anything that an intelligent person not blinded by the.com craze would not have seen coming.
I'd say that unless you're really interested in reading another ".com failure" saga, or have an interest in Rebel in particular, this is probably a really long article you can afford to skip.
Right... an organization called "Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights", that in its declaration mentions only Islamic radicals and Jihads. That's about as decieving as the name Holy Land Foundation.
Why don't you 1) examine the facts yourself (from a relatively impartial news organization like NPR), 2) go to the library and find some history books, prefereably by Jewish, Arab, and non-biased historians, and read them all to discern the true facts, and 3) if you reference organizations, reference non-biased, egalitarian ones like Amnesty.
Someone who considers a website like dhimmi.com a good place to start becoming knowledgable in these matters is a far cry from being a "scholar" or Jewish (or any other) history.
Bullshit... Isreal was created as a result of the UN/US/England as a refuge for Jews after WWII.
To think that a bunch of "orny Jews" could have possibly carved themselves a space of thier own in the Middle East without International support is just silly. Get off your damned over zealous, one-sided high horse and go read some non-biased (in as much as such a thing exists) history.
Ah, I will agree with you on that. But I am wondering about the Ghz arena. 1.0 -> 2.0 Ghz came out in a small fraction of the time that, say, 33 -> 950Mhz did. Is there anything near the difference?
One thing that you don't see people talking about much is why all these Mhz matter. In other words, is there really a big difference between 1.9 and 2.0 on the software that people use today? And if not, how long will it take before there is a difference?
I am just remembering that back in the day, you could tell the difference between a 200 and a 233MMX relatively easily. Does that still hold true, say, when playing Counterstrike on a 1.8Ghz vs. a 2.0GHz?
Some reps from VA came by and gave a presentation at my company regarding this product about 2 months ago.
Its actually pretty neat - they'll set up your own internal sourceforge on servers in your organization. And while they are doing it, they'll customize it so that the backend works with all of your already establised CM and problem tracking tools.
The idea is that even if your company makes closed software, you can benefit from a structured way to share code within the company. They can even close off portions with restricted access, so that classified projects (I work for a defense contractor) will only be available to the developers working on it.
The product the and the services they bring with it are really amazing... if I was in charge of such things here, I'd switch over ASAP. I really hope they make a go with this.
I wonder if changing the DAY= value will actually work... looking at the resulting cookie didn't tell me much, but I've never actually used cookies, so I am not familiar with the format.
That makes him resourceful (read: Hacker), becuase he still manages to get a conference of use out of his laptop *before* he bitches and gets it fixed.
Perhaps if we had more people like him and less like you in this world, there would be a lot more doing, and a lot less bitching. Either that, or we need to bring back reruns of McGyver and the ATeam to get the do-it-yourself, hack-it-together spirit back.
I have been arguing for the past 3 years (when my University had switched from C++ to Java) that it was a bad idea.
From a theoretical standpoint, Java skips two important features. First, it does not have (traditional C) pointers. Learning a linked list in Java (if you actually learn one instead of using a library) lacks the effectiveness of learning a linked list in C/C++. Along the same lines, becuase of its garbage collection, Java teaches first time programmers to be lazy with their objects. I saw countless programmers who cut their teeth on Java fall flat on their faces later on when faced with C++, with its pointers, segmentations faults, loss of memory, etc. you are much better off learning the right way before being able to take shortcuts.
I have also notice some disturbing trends with the way Java is used to teach. When I took classes in C++, our projects were Comptuer Science oriented, such as simulating a rudimentary telephone switching system. Many of the first year Java assignments I have seen take "advantage" of Java's graphical features, and involve clocks, scrolling text, etc. Instructors seem to lose sight of the real Computer Science oriented projects that present themselves when the only easily availible interfaces are file and text.
So I heartly say that Universities (and High Schools) should teach C++. And students learning Java now should do themselves a favor and learn C++ on their own.
No, it does not resemble a PPC machine. First off, the S/390 architecture is not a PPC architecture.
And there are differences in the capabilties that are there, the devices, etc.
Unfortunately, they are giving us only a Linux login... and I guess its actually root on your own Linux VM. This is cool, but I would want to have my own VM session so I could then create my own Linux VMs. Ah well...
-Former Linux/VM Developer
http://www.eagle7.org/~dmorriso/ibmlinux.html
The USPTO has a patent search here. It is free, and offers patent grants, "full-text since 1976, full-page images since 1790", and pending applications, "published since 15 March 2001".
You have to pay for quality copies, but you always had to do this at IBM. Could someone please post and explain why this service of the goverment is so lacking? Or do people not know about it?
I've put Debian on my Sparc2, and used it as a webserver. Works like a charm. It's even got a nifty framebuffer preload that shows up when you start up X.
Basically, Weekend All Things Considered ran this story about a company called LunarCorp projecting ads on the moon with a laser. Except LunarCorp is the former name of a GE bone density company, and *no one* else had the story.
Slashdot Mirror
If you're employer was a private entity, I think they could basically do whatever they wanted, as long as they did not discrimnate (the Fourth amendment doesn't apply to private entities)
On the other hand, it sounds like you work for the government, so the Fourth amendment might apply. However, I know that defense contractor employees (Lockheed Martin, etc) are subject to searches by the DOD when they enter or leave the site, and those searches are legal.
I'd say your best bet might be to talk to an attorney, or pay your legal dept. a visit and ask them about it. If the searching is legal, there is almost surely a federal or DOD statute that makes them legit - ask for a copy.
Oh, IANAL of course.
Great... next thing you know, NASA will be losing vehicles in the Gamma Quadrant, and then who knows what'll happen to their funding.
The article is not particularly informative, but the humorous reference to HAL at the end makes it worth the read.
I have to agree with some of the contest detractors though - I don't see this as a great way to concentrate on AI. I think that computers that anticipate human actions and make their own well informed decisions, and so on, will be much mroe useful and more important than a computer that can interact well in a natural language.
Someone mod this guy up - that's some of the best bullshit I've heard since the last Presidential election season.
Check out the hardware that they apparently used for this. I assume its what they used to control the device.
I guess its just a reminder that sometimes slow and simple out weighs fast and new. It'd be interesting to know just what sort of hardware and software they used to create this. The article on the Colorado page give some details, saying that diode lasers were used and that the apparatus was simple and inexpensive. It's neat to think not all cutting edge physics needs super expensive and complicated devices like cyclotrons.
The sort of Indiana Jones/John Wayne/Han Solo attitude in the crew was refreshing - that's something that had been lost (and something that was fitting for the "maturity" of the human race at that point)
As far as the soft core porn, I had no problem with seeing that side of a Vulcan, and my non-geek g/f had no problem seeing a starship captain in his briefs.
I didn't like the science all that much. I got the sense that they had lost some of the knack for reality that we had gained during TNG, etc. For instance, the light of the phaser beam moved *much* slower in that communications room than the people in it. I didn't understand the whole shielding scheme either. It is very unlcear to me exactly what technologies they have and do not have. For instance, they have deflectors, transporters, anti-grav, and beam weapons - but don't yet have a tractor beam. I don't know if the physics of these are consistent or not. (What I mean is this: are any of these like having incadescent lights and not having figured out that you can use electricity for heaters)
I did like some of the "primative" touches. I liked the human linguist. I liked the "sweet-spot" in the ships anti grav unit.
once thing I'd like to know - do they have subspace communications? I assume that they do, but it was never mentioned, and on TNG they through around "subspace" the way people throw around "Action Item" in a corporation.
Me thinks that you've got Java on the brain.
Speaking as an Agnostic, that is true.
Athiests do, however, engage in Philosophical wars, which are just as dangerous. Case in point: any Communist revolution. Religion is only bad when it clouds the judgement of an entire group of people, but it is not the only thing that can cause this.
Over 36,000 people have contributed over $1,000,000 today. Wow - amazing. Get there and give money if you haven't!
If I recall correctly, this story is very similar to (but albeit perhaps more detailed than) other stories that disected other IPOs and Internet Startups back when everything started crashing. I can see how it would be interesting, but nothing seems like particularly big news or anything that an intelligent person not blinded by the .com craze would not have seen coming.
I'd say that unless you're really interested in reading another ".com failure" saga, or have an interest in Rebel in particular, this is probably a really long article you can afford to skip.
As they say in Buffalo, just my Canadian $0.02
Right... an organization called "Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights", that in its declaration mentions only Islamic radicals and Jihads. That's about as decieving as the name Holy Land Foundation.
Why don't you 1) examine the facts yourself (from a relatively impartial news organization like NPR), 2) go to the library and find some history books, prefereably by Jewish, Arab, and non-biased historians, and read them all to discern the true facts, and 3) if you reference organizations, reference non-biased, egalitarian ones like Amnesty.
Someone who considers a website like dhimmi.com a good place to start becoming knowledgable in these matters is a far cry from being a "scholar" or Jewish (or any other) history.
Bullshit... Isreal was created as a result of the UN/US/England as a refuge for Jews after WWII.
To think that a bunch of "orny Jews" could have possibly carved themselves a space of thier own in the Middle East without International support is just silly. Get off your damned over zealous, one-sided high horse and go read some non-biased (in as much as such a thing exists) history.
Ah, I will agree with you on that. But I am wondering about the Ghz arena. 1.0 -> 2.0 Ghz came out in a small fraction of the time that, say, 33 -> 950Mhz did. Is there anything near the difference?
One thing that you don't see people talking about much is why all these Mhz matter. In other words, is there really a big difference between 1.9 and 2.0 on the software that people use today? And if not, how long will it take before there is a difference?
I am just remembering that back in the day, you could tell the difference between a 200 and a 233MMX relatively easily. Does that still hold true, say, when playing Counterstrike on a 1.8Ghz vs. a 2.0GHz?
Some reps from VA came by and gave a presentation at my company regarding this product about 2 months ago.
Its actually pretty neat - they'll set up your own internal sourceforge on servers in your organization. And while they are doing it, they'll customize it so that the backend works with all of your already establised CM and problem tracking tools.
The idea is that even if your company makes closed software, you can benefit from a structured way to share code within the company. They can even close off portions with restricted access, so that classified projects (I work for a defense contractor) will only be available to the developers working on it.
The product the and the services they bring with it are really amazing... if I was in charge of such things here, I'd switch over ASAP. I really hope they make a go with this.
The link for the opt out is:t p://www.x10.com/x10ads1.htm
http://www.x10.com/home/optout.cgi?DAY=30&PAGE=ht
I wonder if changing the DAY= value will actually work... looking at the resulting cookie didn't tell me much, but I've never actually used cookies, so I am not familiar with the format.
That makes him resourceful (read: Hacker), becuase he still manages to get a conference of use out of his laptop *before* he bitches and gets it fixed. Perhaps if we had more people like him and less like you in this world, there would be a lot more doing, and a lot less bitching. Either that, or we need to bring back reruns of McGyver and the ATeam to get the do-it-yourself, hack-it-together spirit back.
"Because many of the models are ginned up by computer scientists who don't know anything about human behavior."
Another Computer Scientist unknowningly explains the tragic lack of sex amongst those in his field.
I have been arguing for the past 3 years (when my University had switched from C++ to Java) that it was a bad idea.
From a theoretical standpoint, Java skips two important features. First, it does not have (traditional C) pointers. Learning a linked list in Java (if you actually learn one instead of using a library) lacks the effectiveness of learning a linked list in C/C++. Along the same lines, becuase of its garbage collection, Java teaches first time programmers to be lazy with their objects. I saw countless programmers who cut their teeth on Java fall flat on their faces later on when faced with C++, with its pointers, segmentations faults, loss of memory, etc. you are much better off learning the right way before being able to take shortcuts.
I have also notice some disturbing trends with the way Java is used to teach. When I took classes in C++, our projects were Comptuer Science oriented, such as simulating a rudimentary telephone switching system. Many of the first year Java assignments I have seen take "advantage" of Java's graphical features, and involve clocks, scrolling text, etc. Instructors seem to lose sight of the real Computer Science oriented projects that present themselves when the only easily availible interfaces are file and text.
So I heartly say that Universities (and High Schools) should teach C++. And students learning Java now should do themselves a favor and learn C++ on their own.
No, it does not resemble a PPC machine. First off, the S/390 architecture is not a PPC architecture.
And there are differences in the capabilties that are there, the devices, etc.
Unfortunately, they are giving us only a Linux login... and I guess its actually root on your own Linux VM. This is cool, but I would want to have my own VM session so I could then create my own Linux VMs. Ah well...
-Former Linux/VM Developer http://www.eagle7.org/~dmorriso/ibmlinux.html
The USPTO has a patent search here. It is free, and offers patent grants, "full-text since 1976, full-page images since 1790", and pending applications, "published since 15 March 2001".
You have to pay for quality copies, but you always had to do this at IBM. Could someone please post and explain why this service of the goverment is so lacking? Or do people not know about it?
I've put Debian on my Sparc2, and used it as a webserver. Works like a charm. It's even got a nifty framebuffer preload that shows up when you start up X.
I am 99% sure this is an April Fools joke, and if it isn't, well, life if going to start sucking:0 401.lunar.html
http://www.npr.org/programs/watc/features/2001/01
Basically, Weekend All Things Considered ran this story about a company called LunarCorp projecting ads on the moon with a laser. Except LunarCorp is the former name of a GE bone density company, and *no one* else had the story.
SpanishInquisition wrote:
;)
My question is there, I've never been so proud!
It seems even the SpanishInquisition didn't expect himself.
How the hell is this offtopic???
Didn't the stupid moderators even read the freaking article? Geesh.